desigualdad

Effective equality between men and women is a common goal to be achieved as a society. This is stated by the United Nations (UN), which includes "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls" as one of the Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030.

For this, it is essential to have quality data that show us the reality and the situations of risk and vulnerability that women face. This is the only way to design effective policies that are more equitable and informed, in areas such as violence against women or the fight to break glass ceilings. This has led to an increasing number of organisations opening up data related to gender inequality. However, according to the UN itself, less than half of the data needed to monitor gender inequality is currently available.

What data are needed?

In order to understand the real situation of women and girls in the world, it is necessary to systematically include a gender analysis in all stages of the production of statistics. This implies from using gender-sensitive concepts to broadening the sources of information in order to highlight phenomena that are currently not being measured.

Gender data does not only refer to sex-disaggregated data. Data also need to be based on concepts and definitions that adequately reflect the diversity of women and men, capturing all aspects of their lives and especially those areas that are most susceptible to inequalities. In addition, data collection methods need to take into account stereotypes and social and cultural factors that may induce gender bias in the data.

Resources for gender mainstreaming in data

From datos.gob.es we have already addressed this issue in other contents, providing some initial clues on the creation of datasets with a gender perspective, but more and more organisations are becoming involved in this area, producing materials that can help to alleviate this issue.

The UN Statistics Division produced the report “Integrating a Gender Perspective into Statistics” to provide the methodological and analytical information needed to improve the availability, quality and use of gender statistics.  The report focuses on 10 themes: education; work; poverty; environment; food security; power and decision-making; population, households and families; health; migration, displaced persons and refugees; and violence against women. For each theme, the report details the gender issues to be addressed, the data needed to address them, data sources to be considered, and specific conceptual and measurement issues. The report also discusses in a cross-cutting manner how to generate surveys, conduct data analysis or generate appropriate visualisations.

UN agencies are also working on this issue in their various areas of action. For example, Unicef has also developed guides of interest such as “Gender statistics and administrative data systems”, which compiles resources such as conceptual and strategic frameworks, practical tools and use cases, among others.

Another example is the World Bank. This organisation has a gender-sensitive data portal, where it offers indicators and statistics on various aspects such as health, education, violence or employment. The data can be downloaded in CSV or Excel, but it is also displayed through narratives and visualisations, which make it easier to understand. In addition, they can be accessed through an API.  This portal also includes a section where tools and guidelines are compiled to improve data collection, use and dissemination of gender statistics. These materials are focused on specific sectors, such as agri-food or domestic work. It also has a section on courses, where we can find, among others, training on how to communicate and use gender statistics.

Initiatives in Spain

If we focus on our country, we also find very interesting initiatives. We have already talked about GenderDataLab.org, a repository of open data with a gender perspective. Its website also includes guides on how to generate and share these datasets. If you want to know more about this project, we invite you to watch this interview with Thais Ruiz de Alda, founder and CEO of Digital Fems, one of the entities behind this initiative.

In addition, an increasing number of agencies are implementing mechanisms to publish gender-sensitive datasets. The Government of the Canary Islands has created the web tool “Canary Islands in perspective” to bring together different statistical sources and provide a scorecard with data disaggregated by sex, which is continuously updated. Another project worth mentioning is the “Women and Men in the Canary Islands” website, the result of a statistical operation designed by the Canary Islands Statistics Institute (ISTAC) in collaboration with the Canary Islands Institute for Equality. It compiles information from different statistical operations and analyses it from a gender perspective.

The Government of Catalonia has also included this issue in its Government Plan. In the report "Prioritisation of open data relating to gender inequality for the Government of Catalonia" they compile bibliography and local and international experiences that can serve as inspiration for both the publication and use of this type of datasets. The report also proposes a series of indicators to be taken into account and details some datasets that need to be opened up.

These are just a few examples that show the commitment of civil associations and public bodies in this area. A field we must continue to work in order to get the necessary data to be able to assess the real situation of women in the world and thus design political solutions that will enable a fairer world for all.

Today, 8 March is the day on which we commemorate women's struggle to achieve their full participation in society, as well as giving visibility to the current gender inequality and demanding global action for effective equality of rights in all areas.

However, the data seem to indicate that we still have some way to go in this respect. 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty are women. Women predominate in global food production (up to 80% in some areas), but own less than 10% of the land. Eighty per cent of people displaced by disasters and climate-related changes worldwide are women and girls. And the situation for women has only worsened due to the pandemic, causing the estimate of the time needed to close the current gender gap to now grow to more than 135 years.

The importance of data in the fight for equality

It is therefore a fact that women have fallen behind on many of the sustainable development indicators, an inequality that is also being replicated in the digital world - and even amplified through the increasing use of algorithms that lack the necessary training data to be representative of women's reality. But it is also a fact that we do not even have all the data we need to know with certainty where we stand on a large number of key indicators.

There is a widespread shortage of gender data that cuts across all economic and social sectors. The World Bank, the European Union, the OECD, the United Nations, UNICEF, the ITU or the IMF - more and more international bodies are making their own particular efforts to compile their own gender databases. However, indicators are still lacking in many key areas, in addition to other important gaps in the quality of existing data that are often incomplete or outdated.

This lack of data is something that can be particularly problematic when it comes to such sensitive issues as gender-based violence - an area where we are fortunately seeing more and more data globally, including some great and encouraging examples such as the ILDA-led femicide data initiative. This is a very important step forward because it is even more difficult to improve when we don't even know what the current situation is. Data, and the governance policies we create to manage it, can also be sexist.

Data are tools for making better decisions and better policies. They allow us to set goals and measure our progress. Data has therefore become an indispensable tool for creating social impact in communities. This is why the lack of data on the lives of women and girls is so damaging.

Addressing the gender gap through data

In seeking solutions to this problem, and thus working for gender equality also through data, it is crucial that we involve the protagonists and give them a voice. In this way, through their own experiences, we can develop more inclusive processes for data collection, analysis and publication. We will then be in a much better position to use data as an inclusive tool to address gender equality. Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein's excellent Data Feminism Handbook provides a set of strategies and principles to guide us in doing this:

1. Examining power - Data feminism begins by looking at how power operates in the world.
2. Challenging power - We must commit to challenging power structures when they are unequal and working for equity.
3. Empowering emotions and embodiment - Data feminism teaches us to value multiple forms of knowledge, including that which comes from people.
4. Rethink binarisms and hierarchies - We must challenge gender binarism, as well as other systems of quantification and classification that could lead to various forms of marginalisation.
5. Embrace pluralism - The most complete knowledge emerges from synthesising multiple perspectives, prioritising local knowledge and experiences.
6. Consider context - Data are neither neutral nor objective. They are products of unequal social relations, and understanding that context will be essential to ethical and accurate analysis.
7. Make the work visible - The work of data science is the collaborative product of many people. All of this work must be made visible, so that it can be recognised and valued.

Nuestras opciones para contribuir a reducir la brecha de datos

In order to make progress in this fight for equality, we need much more gender-disaggregated data that adequately reflects the concerns of women and girls, their diversity and all aspects of their lives. We can and should all do our part in drawing attention to the disadvantages women face through data. Here are some tips:

• Start by always collecting and publishing data disaggregated by gender.
• Always use women as a reference group in our calculations when we are dealing with inequalities that affect them directly.
• Document the decisions we make and our methodologies in working with gender data, including any changes in our approaches over time and their justification.
• Always share raw and complete data in an open and reusable format. In this way, even if we have not focused on the challenges women face, at least others can do so using the same data.

Together we can make the invisible visible and finally ensure that every single woman and girl in the world is counted. The situation is urgent and now is the time to make a determined bid to close the data gap as a necessary tool to close the gender gap as well.

Content prepared by Carlos Iglesias, Open data Researcher and consultant, World Wide Web Foundation. The contents and views expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author.

Is it possible to find in the data the necessary help to solve the real problems that our society faces? While it is true that data alone cannot be transformed into food for the most disadvantaged, nor can it make weapons disappear in conflict zones or inequalities in the world, they are very useful when it comes to providing information on the causes that cause certain events or situations. Thanks to them, we can better assess the reasons and consequences of these situations, and act so that they do not recur.

Once, thanks to open data, we identify the causes that cause these types of events, we must take one more step: use this information to develop solutions and services that help us solve problems such as, for example, the lack of social inclusion of marginalized groups or inequalities caused by gender, economic or social issues.

When we speak of inclusion, we refer to the process by which both individuals and communities of people, such as migrants, refugees, socially disadvantaged groups or individuals, can interact and integrate in their communities in a satisfactory way and with the same opportunities.

Next, we will see some examples of the importance of open data when creating instruments and services that help the integration of this type of groups, focusing especially on the challenges that our country faces.

Problems related to inequality in Spain and digital solutions based on open data to solve them

Labor insertion

In a context where the health crisis is damaging our economy, it is essential to bring job opportunities closer to citizens. The open publication of job offers and courses, as the Basque Employment Service does through its Lanbide platform, is allowing many job web portals and training centers to add these offers to their catalog easily, promoting their dissemination and , therefore, the labor insertion of job seekers.

Depopulation of rural areas

Currently in Spain it is necessary to make users more visible and aware of the great depopulation problem suffered by some areas of our country, in which its inhabitants have less and less social resources, which sometimes leads to increasing their isolation.

Tool such as "La España Vacía", which consists of a series of interactive maps that show the Spanish demographic evolution, help us to make visible and understand the problem, while platforms such as Plan Repuebla can serve to attract businesses and new inhabitants to areas with lower population density.

Gender inequality 

There are platforms that function as a great channel of awareness and support for women victims of sexist violence, offering testimonies and analysis of the current situation. This is the case of Desprotegides, a portal created in Catalonia that seeks to make visible the serious problem of sexist violence suffered by thousands of women in the world today, in this case with updated data on the number of victims in the Catalan community.

One step further goes the Data COVID Gender project created by the Barcelona Open Data Initiative together with the Gender and ICT group (GENTIC) of the Internet Interdisciplicary Institute (IN3). The project consists of analyzing the impact that gender and occupational segregation have on the prevalence of the coronavirus. It has been one of the 15 proposals chosen by the Catalan Health Quality and Evaluation Agency (Aquas) of the Department of Health to carry out research in data analytics on the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19 in Catalonia.

Integration of people with disabilities

In recent years, simple applications that, using open data, provide useful information about the environment. In this article you can find different applications created by companies and citizens, but also public services are working in this regard. As an example, the city of Murcia has launched a free application that allows people with hearing disabilities to receive information about municipal services and carry out the procedures they request by way of videoconference through a smartphone.

Relevant information about the coronavirus for risk groups

Curvaenaragon.com is a web page developed by the Government of Aragon whose main objective is to show updated information on the situation of Covid-19 in the autonomous community, breaking down the data by the different provinces (Huesca, Zaragoza and Teruel).

This website allows all citizens who reside or have to travel to Aragon to consult the evolution of the pandemic in the area, especially for the risk groups that are most vulnerable to this pathology.

In short, there are more and more applications and technologies that, thanks to open data, allow us to obtain useful information about the environment in order to offer solutions to problems such as inequality, disability, poverty or violence, among others.

These are just some examples of applications that use open data to favor the eradication of inequality, but if you know of any other that fulfills a similar function, do not hesitate to register it on our portal or send us an email to contacto@datos.gob.es

Content elaborated by datos.gob.es team.

The public sector is not only a great provider of open data, but also one of its main users. Open data facilitates contact and direct communication between governments and citizens. This can drive more efficient and effective public policies.

Among other areas, open data has great potential to develop policies and tools that contribute to the protection of minorities and groups at risk of social exclusion. These social groups often find difficult to participate fully in society. For that reason, we need mechanisms to sensitize all citizens and create opportunities, reducing inequalities and discrimination.

The interest of governments in this field is evident. As an example, events such as the International Open Data Conference (IODC), whose agenda includes multiple spaces focused on social justice, immigrant integration and gender issues.

In Spain, resources are also being allocated to open this type of data, and organizations are carrying out initiatives aimed at social improvements.

Greater openness of data linked to social indicators

In different Spanish regions, organizations are creating specific spaces to share data that foster social debate around inequality.

One example is The Observatory of inequality in Aragon, created with the aim of "providing transparency to the evolution and effects of inequality". This portal provides indicators related to different categories such as employment, disability, dependency, care for the elderly, housing, family or immigration, among other categories.

In the same vein, we find The Observatory of the Social Reality of Navarra, whose objective is "the research, planning and evaluation of public policies focused on social services, employment and housing, as well as the analysis of the processes of social transformation and the social problems in the Autonomous Community ". With this objective, it offers various statistics, indicators and studies on levels of employment, immigration, dependency or international cooperation, among others.

But not only public organizations are concerned about this issue. Private companies have also promoted websites such as The Social Observatory of La Caixa, where their own indicators are published openly. This contribute to a better diagnosis of the social reality.

Thanks to the opening and dissemination of this type of information, citizens can make an informed judgment and demand effective improvements. In addition, NGOs can better understand the reality they face and suggest specific improvement actions.

Tools to facilitate integration

The opening of this type of data has also facilitated the creation of mechanisms and tools aimed at facilitating the integration of groups in vulnerable situations. In recent years, state and local public authorities have supported different events, contests, hackathons, etc. to promote applications and new services that help inclusion. This is the case of 'Accede' project, promoted by the Accessibility area of the City of Málaga. This project will facilitate the creation of an easy and intuitive application to boost urban accessibility for the elderly and people with functional diversity, using open data from the municipality.

Another example, coming from the private sector, is "Ni un hogar sin energía" (No home without energy), a platform based on open data promoted by Ecodes to save energy and avoid energy poverty. Thanks to this platform, citizens who need help can receive information about social aid, initiatives and projects aimed at improving energy efficiency and access to energy.

In short, the analysis and reuse of open data is allowing administrations to bring their policies to the public. Likewise, a more informed society can elaborate its own informed judgments and promote policies that facilitate the integration and social inclusion of vulnerable groups.

More than half of the world's population are women, who also play a key role in our society. For example, it is women who grow, produce and sell more than 90% of locally grown food. Paradoxically, these same women are beneficiaries of only 1% of agricultural loans and receive less than 1% of public contracts. One of the reasons for this growing discrimination is precisely the scarcity of the availability of the gender data required to adequately evaluate public policies and ensure that women are included and their particular needs taken into account.

As we see, far from taking advantage of the benefits promised by open data and appart from suffering the usual discrimination due to gender issues, women around the world are now also forced to live a new form of discrimination through the data: women have less online presence than men; they are generally less likely to be heard in the consultation and design phase of data policies; they are less valued in the rankings of data scientists and usually they do not even have representation in official statistics.

The goals defined through the Sustainable Development Goals include a specific objective to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women. However, even though we already have a great variety of data disaggregated by sex, a recent study by the United Nations has detected the existence of  important gender data gaps when dealing with these specific sources of discrimination in such relevant areas such as health, education, economic opportunities, political participation or even one's physical integrity.

Ending discrimination will be a much more difficult task if you do not even have the basic data necessary to understand the extent of the problem to solve it. Therefore, an important first step is to make the most of the already available data, but also be able to clearly visualize these deficiencies. Political commitment at the highest level is very high with initiatives such as the Global Data Alliance for Sustainable Development, the Open Data Charter or the African Consensus on Data, showing their explicit support for more inclusive data policies. Nevertheless, this commitment has not materialized, as even today only 13% of governments include in their budgets the regular collection of gender data.

In order to close this new digital gender gap, a new comprehensive approach will therefore be necessary to identify the necessary data, ensure that this data is collected and shared as open data, conduct training actions so the interested parties can understand and analyze these data by themselves and enable dialogue and participation mechanisms to ensure that public budgets adequately capture these needs.

In an increasingly digital world, without equality of data, we will not be able to understand the totality of the reality about women's life and well-being, nor reach true gender equality to make each and every one of women  be taken into account.